


Coughing

by lesbianettes



Category: Chicago Med
Genre: M/M, Pneumonia, Sickfic, bc fun fact not having a spleen makes you immunocompromised, good boyfriend Crockett, post 5.08, post Noah getting his spleen removed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-21
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:29:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21514570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbianettes/pseuds/lesbianettes
Summary: Noah experiences some post-op complications.
Relationships: Crockett Marcel/Noah Sexton
Kudos: 32





	Coughing

**Author's Note:**

> I lowkey really really want to write a bunch of sickfic for Noah because of the fact that he's now immunocompromised like..... the angst factor, babes. It's there.

The cough starts eight weeks later.

All things considered, Noah heals well. He takes all his medication and titrates off the painkillers. Every checkup shows improvement. In fact, Noah starts watching out for what he eats and works out more often to try and keep himself healthier in the wake of all of this. Without his spleen, he’s going to be immunocompromised, and everyone assumes he understands that. Just like Maggie, he wears more protective gear around infectious patients, and they try to keep him more in the service of injuries. Eight weeks of getting better, and everyone’s proud of him.

But the cough starts early in the morning, when their alarm goes off and as soon as Noah sits up, he coughs, wet and heavy. Crockett’s up too in an instant, rubbing his back and telling him to breathe through it until his breathing slowly comes back under control, if a little rough.

“You okay?”

“Inhaler?” Noah wheezes.

Crockett gets up to dig through their medicine cabinet, making a mess and realizing that this isn’t normal. Noah had asthma when he was young. The inhaler, it’s just in case nowadays. When he moved in, he says he still gets attacks when he’s really stressed out. Crockett wants to believe that’s all this is, especially because the stress trigger is obvious, but deep down? He knows what an asthma attack is like, and that this wasn’t it.

He keeps rubbing Noah’s back as he takes two doses and sniffles. Another red flag. Crockett reaches up and cups his cheek under the guise of affection, but really he’s looking for warmth. A fever. He’s got good instincts, and something about this is setting them off. 

“I know it’s your day off,” he says. Noah’s skin is hot to the touch. “But maybe you should come in with me, let me check you out.”

“I’m okay, it was just asthma.”

Crockett’s heart hurts. “You had major traumatic surgery a couple months ago. Even if that’s the case, you should let me take a look and make sure everything’s okay.”

“Can’t we do that here?”

“Do we have a lab here, sugar?”

Noah groans and falls back against the bed. “No labs, c’mon. You know I hate getting my blood drawn.”

He pouts, adorably pathetic, and Crockett can’t resist kissing him and he’s close to giving in. He’s a weak man when it comes to Noah, he can admit that. So he sighs and leans back a little.

“I’ll do what I can, and if you’re really okay, I won’t bring you into the ED.”

“Thank you.”

Crockett grabs his bag from by the closet. He calls it his little housecall kit. Even if he rarely uses it, it makes him feel more secure to know he has it in the event of an emergency. Or Noah refusing to go get a proper checkup. He starts with the thermometer, giving it a pass across Noah’s forehead until it beeps at him. 

“100.2,” he reads aloud. “That’s a fever.”

“Not a high one.”

He gets his stethoscope next and fits it into his ears before holding it up to Noah’s chest. His heart audibly speeds up, the way it always does when Crockett touches him, but it was already faster than he’d like to begin with. And when he listens to his chest… he can hear that Noah is still breathing in both lungs, but he can also hear that he’s having trouble with it, and there’s fluid. He pulls his stethoscope back and it must show on his face. 

“Crockett-”

“You need to get to the ED.”

Noah shakes his head. “Look, I’m okay, I promise. If it gets worse, I’ll get checked out.”

“If it gets worse…” Crockett’s chest hurts now, too. “Noah, listen to me. It’s early. You’re not at your strongest right now, you need to get treated immediately.”

He doesn’t argue, nor does he agree. Instead, he coughs again, hard, long enough that it’s frightening because Noah isn’t breathing. Crockett can’t do much but rub his back until he starts gasping for breath again.

“Sugar, I’m taking you to med,” he says firmly, and helps Noah to his feet.

His skin is warm to the touch, a little clammy, and he’s shivering now as they walk slowly to the front door. It’ll be a thirty minute drive to med in the traffic, and then they should be okay. Once they get to the hospital, everything will be fine. Noah will be okay. Crockett promises himself as such. He won’t let anything too bad happen to Noah, and they’ll probably just monitor him and put him on medication. Everything will be fine.

He buckles Noah’s seatbelt for him and turns the heating on. The cold weather probably doesn’t help, either. But it’s not too far to med, and once they get there, it’s going to be okay. Even if Noah coughs on and off for the entire ride there in varying degrees of severity. 

As Crockett’s finally walking him into the ER, Noah’s legs give out, and one of his coughs produces a thick, dark red dribble down his chin. 

“I need help,” he yells, dropping to the floor with Noah and cradling him close against his chest. “It’s okay. Just breathe.”

Ethan, Will, April, and Doris are there right away, their faces twisted with concern as they help him carry Noah to a treatment room. He’s still coughing and wheezing. The blood is new, and Crockett would be panicking if his brain wasn’t automatically shifting into Doctor mode.

“What’s going on?” Ethan asks, putting his stethoscope in his ears and pressing the end to Noah’s chest.

“He was having a hard time breathing this morning. Low fever, cough. His lungs sounded congested. He collapsed on the way in.”

“This morning?”

Crockett helps get Noah on the monitors and clears his throat. “That’s not important. He can’t breathe, Choi.”

“April, let’s get him on oxygen.” Will elevates the end off the bed so that Noah’s no longer laying down, which does help somewhat. “Sat’s in the mid eighties, let’s get that quickly. Can we get a chest x-ray in here?”

They arrange the lead blankets on Noah’s body before pulling down the emergency x-ray. Noah’s shaking enough that Crockett and Ethan have to steady him long enough for the image to get taken.

“Definitely some fluid,” Will says, gesturing at the white film. “We’ll want a closer look on CT. But in the meantime, let’s see what we can do about raising his blood ox. April, temperature?”

April swipes the thermometer across his forehead and raises her eyebrows. “We’re up to 103.4.”

“It was 100 just an hour ago!”

Ethan tucks the blankets around Noah’s legs. “600 of acetaminophen.” He looks at the monitor. “And let’s actually get him on a nebulizer.”

As everything happens around him, Noah just lays there, eyes half open and chest heaving with another cough. Before they come back with the treatment, Crockett reaches over and wipes away the blood on his face.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Crockett says as April comes back with the mask and an oxygen tank. “You’re at med now, you’re going to be just fine.”

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr @princessbekker


End file.
